Brad Pitt’s Formula One Movie Had to Invent a New Camera
The cinematographer currently shooting Brad Pitt 's Formula One movie spoke to Variety about inventing a new camera to capture the film's heartstopping race footage.
Two-time Academy Award winner Claudio Miranda (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Life of Pi) revealed that he worked with Sony Electronics and F1 director Joseph Kosinski to develop a new, extremely tiny camera that allows Pitt and his co-star, Damson Idris, to do their own driving for the film. Miranda has photographed each of Kosinski's features, most notably Top Gun: Maverick. For that film, the two men also used a pioneering piece of Sony camera technology to capture confined cockpit scenes, which required much smaller cameras which could be readily mounted to any surface.
But except for Tom Cruise, Maverick's ensemble "didn't fly the aircraft[s]," Miranda noted. "On Formula One [sic], the actors were driving the cars...So we needed to have a small enough camera system where we could make sure that [Pitt] could drive and see while we get the shots we want."
The cameras were built and installed in Mercedes Benzes used for filming, with four units placed in each vehicle to capture a variety of angles. "We spent a lot of time getting the cars ready," Miranda said, explaining that some tests saw drivers going as fast as 200 MPH. "Sony really listens to us."
Getting the cameras working properly before shooting was especially important, as F1 was given unprecedented access to the actual Formula One circuit. Kosinski and Miranda filmed during actual race days using the real attendees as background for the film, but Pitt and Idris more than held their own. "Both Brad and Damson are really good drivers," Miranda revealed, adding that the driving scenes glimpsed in the teaser trailer are "early Brad. He's actually a lot faster now."
It's unclear if Sony plans to release the newly invented camera to commercial consumers. F1 is currently wrapping up its final few months of shooting, with sequences set in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi yet to be filmed. It'sdue in cinemas on June 27, 2025.
This story was originally published September 23, 2024, 2:52 PM.
